b. 1980 USA. Residing in St. Louis, MO, I work as an Instructional Technician of wood, metals and ceramics at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University. A native of St. Louis, I recently returned after having spent the previous 14 years studying ceramics in the USA and China. Upon the completion of my MFA at Texas Tech University, I first moved to Jingdezhen, China, in 2008 to manage and oversee production of the Pottery Workshop (PWS) – Design Studio. After a year (2011-12) of teaching Ceramics at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO, I moved back to China to work at the PWS – Shanghai location. Here, I had the opportunity to instruct weekly studio classes, college courses, as well as to continue the development of my own creative work. During 2016 and 2017, I taught a semester at Northwest College, Powell, WY and spent the following academic year running the ceramics program at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. In 2017-18, my partner, Andrea Moon and I returned to Jingdezhen to Co-Direct the Pottery Workshop - International Residency and Education Center. Since returning to St. Louis, we continue to build our studio practice and immerse ourselves in the community.
artist statement
In one-off items, sculpture and production work, I am captivated by the union of craft, problem solving, ingenuity and creation when working with clay. While ideas associated with oppositions and dichotomies has and continues to be a driving force in my work, I find that the subtleties and surprises of the creative process have the most influence. Both in my thrown forms and sculpture, I am interested in the act of construction, deconstruction, reconstruction. I believe that it is this process of making that creates an understanding of the object and resulting evolution of the artwork.
